When to mark down: a season plan for a clothing store

Let sell-through, not mood, decide when to mark down. A week-by-week sell-through table for a clothing shop, with an action at each checkpoint and an example.

Mark down a style when its sell-through falls behind plan, not on a fixed date and not when the rack starts to look full. Sell-through is units sold divided by units received. Check it every week from the day the stock lands, compare it with where it should be at that point in the season, and act on the first week it falls clearly behind. The earlier you act, the smaller the cut you need.

Why should sell-through decide the markdown date?

Because the calendar tells you how much time has passed, and sell-through tells you how much stock is left to clear in the time remaining. Those two together are the only things that matter.

A shop owner who marks down "after the season" usually waits too long. By then customers have moved on to the next season's stock, so even a deep cut moves slowly. A shop owner who marks down on mood, because a style "feels slow", often cuts styles that were selling on pace and keeps full price on styles that were quietly stuck.

A weekly sell-through number removes the guesswork. It gives you the same question for every style: is this on track to sell out by the end of the season at full price, or not?

How do I calculate sell-through for a style?

Sell-through = units sold ÷ units received

Three rules keep the number honest:

Count from the day stock reached the shelf. Not the purchase order date. Stock sitting in the godown has not had a chance to sell.
Include later receipts. If you received a second lot of the same style, add it to "units received" from its own arrival date.
Track it per size and colour where you can. A style can look fine overall while two colours carry all the sales. Our guide to the apparel size and colour matrix shows how to set this up so the split is visible.

Returns that go back on the shelf should come off the "sold" figure. Otherwise a style with heavy exchanges will look healthier than it is.

What sell-through should I expect each week?

The table below is an illustrative plan for a selling season of about twelve weeks. Your own season may be shorter or longer; stretch or squeeze the weeks to fit. The checkpoints are expressed as fractions of the stock received, and they are starting points to adjust with your own history, not industry benchmarks.

Week of season	Sell-through on plan (illustrative)	If behind plan, suggested action
Week 2	About one tenth sold	No markdown. Check display, placement and that all sizes are on the floor
Week 4	About a quarter sold	Move the style to a better spot, pair it in outfits, brief staff to show it
Week 6	About two fifths sold	Mark down the slowest sizes and colours only; keep core variants at full price
Week 8	About three fifths sold	Mark down the whole style if it is still behind; stop any pending reorders
Week 10	About four fifths sold	Second markdown on what is left; move it to a clearance rail
Week 12 (season end)	Nearly all sold	Clear the remainder through a final sale, a stock lot buyer or a transfer to another branch

Two things to notice. First, the early weeks call for merchandising fixes, not price cuts. A style that is not selling because it is hidden at the back will not be fixed by a discount. Second, each action only applies if the style is behind plan. A style on or ahead of plan stays at full price, whatever week it is.

Can you work an example for one style?

Take an illustrative kurta style. All numbers here are made up to show the method.

Received: 120 pieces, across four sizes and three colours
Season length planned: 12 weeks
Week 4 check: 24 sold. That is 24 out of 120, or one fifth. The plan says about a quarter, so it is slightly behind.

Week 4 action: no markdown. The owner moves the style from a side wall to the entrance display and has staff show it with matching dupattas.

Week 6 check: 42 sold. That is 42 out of 120, a little over a third. The plan says about two fifths, so it is still behind.

Now the owner looks at the size and colour split:

Colour	Received	Sold by week 6
Maroon	40	24
Navy	40	13
Mustard	40	5

Maroon is ahead of pace on its own. Navy is roughly on plan. Mustard is the problem, with 35 pieces left and half the season gone.

Week 6 action: mark down mustard only. Maroon and navy stay at full price. Cutting the whole style here would have given away margin on maroon pieces that were selling without help.

Week 8 check: mustard has moved to 18 sold after the markdown. The style overall is at 78 out of 120, close to two thirds, which is on plan.

Week 8 action: none on the style. Mustard is watched for a second markdown at week 10. A planned reorder of maroon is checked against the weeks left before it is placed, because a reorder that lands at week 11 will become next season's problem.

The lesson from the example: the markdown date was decided by the numbers at each checkpoint, and it applied only to the variant that needed it.

How does this connect to reordering?

Seasonal styles and basics need different rules. For a seasonal style, the question late in the season is "how do I clear this", so reorders should stop once a style is behind plan or once the remaining weeks are shorter than the supplier's lead time. For basics that sell all year, the question is "when do I buy more", and the answer comes from a reorder point, not a markdown calendar.

Keep the two lists separate in your system, so a fast-selling basic never ends up on the clearance rail and a fading seasonal style never triggers an automatic reorder.

What are the common mistakes?

Marking down on a fixed date for everything. Styles that sell on pace lose margin for no reason.
Waiting until the season ends. Late markdowns need deeper cuts and still clear slowly.
Cutting the whole style when only some variants are slow. Always check the size and colour split first.
Discounting before fixing the display. In the early weeks, visibility problems look like demand problems.
Counting from the order date. Stock in transit or in the godown has not had a chance to sell, so the number looks worse than it is.
Reordering a style that is behind plan. Fresh stock of a slow style only adds to what you will have to clear.

When does this plan not apply?

It does not suit basics and replenishment lines, which should run on reorder points. It needs adjusting for styles with very short lives, such as a single-occasion collection, where the checkpoints come every few days instead of every two weeks. And it needs some caution for a brand-new category with no history: use the table as a first guess, then rewrite it with your own sell-through curves after one season.

FAQ

What is sell-through and how do I calculate it? Sell-through is units sold divided by units received for a style, over the same period. If you received 120 pieces and sold 30, sell-through is 30 out of 120, or one quarter. Count it per style, and ideally per colour, from the day the stock reached the shelf rather than the day you ordered it.

How often should a clothing shop check sell-through? Weekly, on the same day each week, for every seasonal style. A monthly check is too slow, because by the time you notice a style is stuck, half the selling window has gone. A fixed weekly review of a short list of slow styles takes far less time than clearing a full rack after the season.

Should I mark down a whole style or only some sizes and colours? Look at the size and colour split first. Often a style sells well in its core sizes and colours and only the edges are stuck. Marking down the whole style gives away margin on pieces that would have sold at full price. Act on the slow variants and leave the movers alone.

Does this plan apply to basics like plain vests or school uniforms? Not in the same way. Basics and replenishment items sell year round, so the question for them is when to reorder, not when to mark down. Run those on a reorder point. Keep the sell-through calendar for seasonal and fashion styles that you will not reorder once the season ends.